Liberty and Bethlehem Catholic’s girls basketball teams enjoyed a city rivalry contest for their Eastern Pennsylvania Conference opener on Dec. 2 when the Hurricanes got by the Golden Hawks, 41-38, at Bethlehem Catholic.

“We didn’t get them early on when I first got here at Liberty, so I wanted to get a game in before seeing them so we could iron out the wrinkles and whatnot,” said Liberty head coach Jarrett Carnes. “We went up north and saw Scranton Prep and they prepped us for this game, so this was a nice bounce back game. There’s a little bit extra on these types of games because it’s a crosstown rivalry, but the girls showed up, and the girls off the bench showed up too, so it was a great team win.”

In a frantic first half, the Hurricanes scored all of their first-quarter points on Ava Kopetskie’s free throws until Anijah Davis’s bucket with 40 seconds remaining.

“I was very excited for the first basket, of course, because to get the game going, especially since we’re playing a tough team like Beca,” Davis said.

Leah Ault was first to put the Hawks on the scoreboard with a 3-pointer, and Daviana Jones followed up with a three of her own.

The fast pace continued into the second quarter when Kopetskie and Jones were left open underneath to score for their respective teams.

“We were getting caught up in the hype,” said Coach Carnes. “It’s a small gym here, it’s loud, they have a lot of fans, so we wanted to take it easy sometimes. Let them show what they’re doing on defense and then we can go attack. We can’t just come down, one shot, and then have to go back and play defense.”

The Hurricanes then went on a 9-0 run to close out the half and take a 21-18 lead.

“It was very fast, so we didn’t get to run any plays much,” said Davis. “At halftime, we talked it through and we ended up slowing down the offense and being able to pass the ball more. We knew we needed to be more tough because Beca is very aggressive, and we had to be more competitive toward them.”

The Hawks missed on two layups that would have made it a one-point game near the end of the third quarter when the Hurricanes had a five-point lead.

Kopetskie’s 3-pointer opened the fourth quarter while Becahi couldn’t get their shots to fall until Palin Coleman and Ault sank a three apiece, and Aliyah Brame scored on a layup after a steal.

Brame then brought the game within three points on another layup with 48 seconds left, and Jones attempted a 3-pointer that usually falls for the Becahi senior, but Kopetskie ended the game the way she started it.

“They were throwing their whole defense at Ava, and it’s not what we were seeing on film, so we were making adjustments on the fly, and the girls responded very well to that,” Carnes said. “We handled the ball when we needed to and cashed in on free throws to win the game.”